Key Reforms Introduced in Franceâ€™s Healthcare Bill

Key Reforms Introduced in Franceâ€™s Healthcare Bill

Published on : Apr 01, 2015

French Parliament on Tuesday witnessed the presentation of one of the most controversial healthcare reforms in time. Going ahead with the reforms suggested in the bill, France is now aiming to curb the adversities of everything from doctor’s fees to smoking. France is one of the countries that boast excellent healthcare facility and long life expectancy of national residents. However, even after coming this far, the country could not free itself from certain issues and discrepancies associated with its healthcare sector. Policymakers are expecting the new health reform bill to sweep away such issues across the nation down to a significant level.

In this report we shall cover four most important aspects that you must know about the bill.

Smoking clean-up: The bill directly aims at ripping off the cigarette brands from its glamour. The bill proposes to tone down the prominent logos and colorful branding on the cigarette packs. It also proposes to outlaw smoking cigarettes in public places such as parks where children are present.

Drug users might get clean rooms: Health Minister Marisol Touraine is looking forward to lay the groundwork allowing trial runs of a specific number of the supposed “shooting galleries”. Intravenous drug users will have access to clean needles, apart from sanitized facilities in these places. The project until now was endlessly delayed, since opposition viewed the plan as pampering the hard drug users.

The drinking ban: If this legislation is passed, people encouraging minors to drink excessively could face a year of imprisonment and a €15,000 fine.

Digitizing doctors’ records: France already had its maiden system that promotes digitizing patient’s records. But again due to several reasons, the system never really took off. Hence, Touraine is yet again giving it a try to revive the system of digitally maintaining the health records. This time along, however, the healthcare ministry has assigned Assurance Maladie as the initiative in-charge.